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Ahh... the dreaded Utang Na Loob. The cycle of debts and favors in the Filipino culture.
In it’s most simple terms, once you get in debt to someone through either a gift or a favor, then you must repay them in some way that was greater than what they gave you.
For example, if someone drove you to work for a week because your car was in the shop, you would owe them. When the time comes, perhaps to repay the favor, you will drive them 4 hours to another city several times in a week. To repay you, since all that driving was more of a hassle then them driving you to work for a week, they loan you their car for a month because yours is now totally broken and you can’t buy a new one (keep in mind, they only have one car, so the whole family is now walking for a month).
The cycle continues on and on. Once you enter the cycle of Utang Na Loob, you are trapped. Each time you get a favor, you must repay it plus interest. Then, the interest puts the person you paid it back to in debt, and they must repay it with interest. As you can imagine, things can easily get out of control.
When Niña recently found out that I was giving a co-worker a ride to work two times a week for an undefined period of time - she was shocked and said she would never do that. The repayment would be too much. I this is when I learned of Utang Na Loob. I never thought twice about giving the guy a lift - it was only a very minor inconvenience because he lives close by. In the Philippines - this guy would be getting himself into some major favor debt to me. :)
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